


Even in Eureka

by JK Ashavah (ashavah)



Category: Eureka
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 18:06:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/600636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashavah/pseuds/JK%20Ashavah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Christmas in Eureka, and there are some things that just never change, and some that surprise. Set during Season 1.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even in Eureka

**Author's Note:**

  * For [randomling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomling/gifts).



The festive season. The holidays. Christmas. In some places, they call it the silly season. Of course, every season is silly here in Eureka, so maybe here it should be called the sillier season. Even the sill _iest_ season, though that of course leaves wide open the possibility that there's some special upcoming insanity known only to Eureka that could outdo even Christmas.

It doesn't seem all that likely, but anything's possible, right? Especially on a day that begins with finding out Vincent has taken festive experimentation to new heights and started adding cinnamon and nutmeg to anything that stays still long enough, including, apparently, Carter's morning coffee. Not the ideal start to the morning, but it's hardly as though he could actually say anything to Vincent, because just the look on the sheriff's face was enough to make him turn and stride across the café like a haughty thundercloud, denouncing people's lack of taste and wondering why he bothers. 

Carter's pretty sure that he sees some sort of flower in the salad he glances at as he passes, and some of the ingredients in the stuffing for the turkey he hears someone talking about don't even sound like food, so it seems like there are plenty of people still getting the benefit of Vincent's experimentation. Just not him.

He steps outside, cup cradled in his hand against the chill in the wind, shrugging his shoulders so his jacket settles more heavily against his body. There's no snow, and no predictions of any, but the temperature's just as low as if it were about to start swirling down at any moment. It does look like that Pacific Northwest drizzle is going to start, but it hasn't yet. There's even a little group of kids sitting on a bench, in the midst of what turn out to be a heated discussion of the relative merits of quantum physics in explaining Santa.

They lose him when it gets to "imagine that what we've got is entangled Santa particles," but that's all right, because he's got other things to do than listen to that.

Still, it's kind of cool to think that in a place where even the kids are smarter than him, some of them still believe in Santa, even if it does take physics so advanced it makes his head spin.

The sheriff's office is warm, because Jo's already in, hunched over her desk, her own cup of coffee steaming in front of her.

It's barely a few minutes before the phone rings.

"What was that, five seconds?" Carter asks, nodding to Jo. She glares as she answers the phone. 

"Noise complaint." Jo's head tilts to one side as she hands over the phone.

 _Why me?_ he wonders, because surely Jo can handle a noise complaint, but as it turns out, it's not quite that simple. It it ever in Eureka? What it _is_ winds up being mechanical elves escaping somebody's Christmas display and running wild in the park. By the time Carter and Jo get there, there two scientists trailing after them as they run first this way and then that, dodging sculptures and trees, splitting off and coming together again like a misguided flock of sheep.

Or something much harder to herd. In fact, the proverbial cats would be easy in comparison. It takes some of Jo's heavy firepower to take one of them down, spitting and sparking, threatening to start a small fire on the grass. That leaves just one, and Carter chases it almost to the road, where its propulsion system will find easier going than the grass; once it hits the smooth surface, its creator says, it'll just keep going.

Tackling it's the only way to get the damn thing down, and tackling even an elf-sized robot is nobody's idea of fun. The thing's strong and solid, and at first the tackle seems to have no impact at all, but Carter holds on, and what finally does the thing in is the extra weight of dragging the Sheriff the last ten yards to what would have been its freedom. The thing lets out a grinding noise, something in its machinery crunching to a stop and leaving Carter sprawled on the grass.

Jo looks like she's trying not to laugh as she jogs up, and the scientist who'd confessed to building the stupid things in the first place kneels down beside the wreckage, lamenting the loss. It turns out that he'd been in some sort of decorating competition with some of his neighbours. Carter, pulling himself up to his knees, makes a face, eyes rolling skywards. Being one of the best is just never enough for anyone in this town. Everyone has to do better than everybody else. And when everybody else is the sort of mad scientist Carter used to think didn't even exist in the real world, that's quite something.

Christmas decorations wind up being the theme for the day. There's the malfunctioning special effects on a nativity scene that wind up pouring smoke so badly that someone calls in a fire, there's a sound and light show that leads to five different noise complaints and one woman insisting that it's impossible to walk past without sunglasses and asking whether those lasers are dangerous to humans. Carter has to threaten the guy who built it with telling Stark that he'd been smuggling parts out of GD for his Christmas decorations to get the thing disassembled.

"Can't these people just put up, I don't know, a string of lights like everybody else?" Carter complains as they're walking away, the key component of some engineering project under Jo's arm for return to the lab where it belongs.

She doesn't have an opportunity to respond before the explosion.

Jo and Carter glance at each other, their faces identical in expressions of weary exasperation, before they turn and run.

They can follow the smoke as well as the direction of the sound. When they dash around the corner, the third house down has a crater full what looks like charred fragments of charcoal in it, and someone sprawled on the sidewalk out the front. Carter runs to his side, but the guy's already sitting up, shaking his head. Still, he has Jo call for medical assistance and checks the guy over. A crowd's already started to gather, with a sheepish-looking Fargo turning out to be one of the participants in this holiday madness, explaining with a lot of prodding that it looked like the Christmas tree had exploded.

That would explain the bits of wood, charcoal, and pine needles all over the place, filling the air with a scent a little like woodsmoke and crunching as Carter walks over to examine the crater. Once the tree's owner is cleared by a doctor, he explains that he'd been sure to have the best decorations in all of Eureka, with lights that actually flew around the tree instead of just flashing in boring old patterns.

"Well, I guess _that_ didn't go so well," Carter says.

Fargo mutters something about showiness, pulling a face from behind Jo's shoulder that makes Carter give him a warning look.

"You better make sure _you_ don't have anything that's going to set off any explosions, Fargo."

"Uh. Right."

As Fargo scurries off, Carter turns to Jo.

"Is it me, or did he look guilty?"

Guilty or not, Fargo manages not to cause any more explosions. And as a bonus, neither does anyone else, but it still takes a long time to finish interviewing people, deciding on the appropriate action to take, and getting cleanups of the debris of the various accidents and incidents started. By the time their day is over, Jo and Carter are dirty and tired, and Carter winds up with soot smudged all over his uniform to go with the grass stains from earlier.

He doesn't really care much; back at the office, he washes his hands and his face, but he doesn't bother changing. Pretty much all he wants right now is a drink and a quiet evening, which is not exactly guaranteed in Eureka, but it almost looks like he'll get it. He calls Zoe as he's heading out, and it turns out she's at Café Diem, at a party he'd forgotten was even going to be on.

It is, after all, two days before Christmas.

In the time since he'd gotten his coffee that morning, people have been busy. Henry's busy with what looks like a control box for a giant Christmas tree, and Carter's about to comment on any potential explosive properties it might have when Henry presses a button and the thing actually lifts up in the air, spinning.

"Wow."

Henry turns around and grins.

"I hear it's been a busy day."

"You could say that. Looks like nobody should have bothered with that mess over on Socrates. I think this is going to win."

Henry chuckles. 

"Well, I'm done. You off to Café Diem?"

"Sure. I'm meeting Zoe. Come on."

A tinkly festive tune greets them as the door opens into the warmth of the café. Henry, rubbing his hands together, heads for the counter, where Vincent, recovered from the morning's annoyance, hands both him and Carter glasses of eggnog.

"It's my special recipe. 100% guaranteed."

"Guaranteed for what?" Carter asks.

Vincent shrugs. 

"Anything you want."

Sometimes, Eureka's just about enough to drive a guy crazy. But this pretty much makes up for it. Allison's here, and she gives him a smile that makes him grin reflexively back at her, Stark is not, yet, anywhere to be seen, and Jo seems to have relaxed by the time she shows up about half an hour after Carter, now dressed in a clean shirt and even a skirt. 

Even Zoe's in a good mood. She gives him a skeptical look when he first comes up to her, but she doesn't press it when he tells her not to even ask what happened. As it turns out, she's happy with her special recipe ginger ale, and she wanders off after a while to chat to some of her friends.

When they head home, it's a tired but contented Carter who's driving. Maybe tomorrow will bring more crises, but for now, the day is done, and Christmas is nearly here.

As they get out of the car, a flake of white spirals out of the sky and lands on Zoe's cheek.

"Hey!" she says, turning her face upwards, suddenly alight with joy. "It's snowing."

Looks like even in Eureka, the best forecasts can be wrong. Maybe everything will be quiet after all.


End file.
